If a driver is able to get away with this manuever, what's happened is that he's identified you as a passive, simpering, frightened fawn of a motorist and is simply exploiting your weakness. No driver worth the space he occupies on the road allows this to happen -- alpha drivers ensure that any such attempt merely ends with the cutter being stuck in the left-hand lane, impotent, weak, defeated.

PainInTheASP:Now if they would only start ticketing the assholes who ignore miles of "Lane Closed" signs and force their way into the proper lane at the last second.

I'm looking at you, dickhead beamer with the "Baby on Board" sticker. You know who you are. You suck.

When a lane is closed the proper way to merge is immediately before the end of the lane. In many countries it's illegal to change lanes early. It causes backups because everyone gets in one lane rather than using the available space. It's also a very unfair way of merging because no matter where you merge you're sure to piss someone off and they won't let you in.

I've never been bothered by this. Sometimes when you get to your exit lane, NOBODY will leave a gap so you drive up until you find one. Since I can't always tell the dif between those folks and the ones just trying to cut the line, I reserve my rage for bigger battles.

oukewldave:aerojockey: imfallen_angel: DERP... he stated "at the last second."

People who wait till the last second are lesser assholes than people who cause back ups for miles because they merge way way too soon.

What is "merging too soon" mean? You have a sign two miles before the end of the lane that it is ending. At that point, you should be looking for a chance to move out of your lane during those two miles. No one is advocating diving in to the adjacent lane as soon as they are seeing these signs. You continue to drive and find an opening to safely move over. People are commenting on the dbags who feel they are too important to sit in the slower lane and drive until they can't anymore on the lane that is closing, then push their way in.

You're doing it wrong. You should merge just before you run into the lane closure, with a bit of safety margin of course. Many countries make it illegal to merge at any point before that. Your type thinks that once they find a spot to merge nobody should be allowed to merge ahead of them, they have to find a spot behind. If everyone does that then everything gets farked up because the point at which people are merging moves backwards until they're merging five miles back and leaving a lane empty for no reason. It gets ridiculous. It's unfair and people get all pissy about protecting the line in front of them from people merging in.

AnimateThis:Bit'O'Gristle: And just as a side note...everyone ..please ..start looking harder for motorcycles. Get off of your iphone and stop texting dumb shiat like "omg..im stopping at McDonalds now, or ...LOL...that was teh funny!!". People on bikes have little protection from stupid drivers who don't care about anyone but themselves. You're not the only ones out there. Look twice.

/thanks...end of public service announcement.

Yes, let's all make sure to look twice for those guys blasting by you, weaving in and out of lanes, and having a general disregard for all traffic around them. Those poor snowflakes, who will protect them if not the other guy? Goodness knows they could give a crap, which is why they made the poor decision to ride a bike in the first place. Keep the flip flops on and the helmet off Easy Rider, I got your back.

Based on my unscientific observations., and my experience riding, most motorcycle wrecks are the fault of the guy on the bike.

PainInTheASP:Now if they would only start ticketing the assholes who ignore miles of "Lane Closed" signs and force their way into the proper lane at the last second.

Look in the mirror, pal.

The real assholes are people like you who see "lane closed two miles ahead" and switch lanes right away. All that ends up doing it causing traffic to needlessly to back up for miles. The correct time to merge is about 1000 feet ahead of the lane closure. When you go through a construction zone you will see signs like "lange closed 2 miles ahead": nothing about merging now. Sometimes you'll see "merge in 2000 feet": explicitly saying not to merge now but to get ready to merge. Sometimes you see "use both lanes" signs. Doesn't matter. You assholes ignore these signs and merge into a single lane way too early, backing up traffic for everyone.

At about 1000 feet before the lane closure you see signs "merge left" or "merge right". That's when it's time to merge. Any signs you see before this are just telling you to get ready.

Abox:I've never been bothered by this. Sometimes when you get to your exit lane, NOBODY will leave a gap so you drive up until you find one. Since I can't always tell the dif between those folks and the ones just trying to cut the line, I reserve my rage for bigger battles.

PainInTheASP:Now if they would only start ticketing the assholes who ignore miles of "Lane Closed" signs and force their way into the proper lane at the last second.

Agreed. I refuse to let anyone over who feels they shouldn't have to wait in the backed up lane and zoom down til they can't go any further and expect to cut in there. Now if they start merging a mile back when they first saw signs, I'll let them over no problem. I've had people actually come inches from hitting me because they assume I will eventually give in and let them over. Nope! Putting your turn signal on doesn't automatically give you the right of way.

FTA: "Police told Local 10 Investigates the legal way to stop all of this is to safely close the gab with the car in front of you, and not let anyone cut in"

Wow. So the FL police have actually recommended driving an unsafe distance from the car ahead of you, solely for the purpose of acting like an asshole in response to other assholes? Beautiful! And when someone follows this advice and causes an accident, backing up traffic even worse (at a choke point) for hours? The bacon going to reimburse everyone stuck in that traffic for their gas and time?

Hey, I'll agree that people failing to merge when they should, instead zooming down and cutting in at the last second piss me off immensely. But simply blocking them from ever getting back into traffic doesn't solve the problem.

lack of warmth : If you are paying attention to what may affect the car ahead of you, then your reaction time should be the same as that driver.

You've hit on the real problem right there - Having the same reaction time as the driver ahead of you doesn't mean you start slowing down at the same time. You assume you both react to the same cue, but what if the driver ahead of you just randomly stomps on his brakes (not as unlikely as it sounds, if he got distracted for half a second and then noticed he had gotten too close to the next car ahead)?

So, at 30MPH, you move at 44 feet per second. For someone paying close attention, they will consciously notice the brake lights after 150-300ms; decide to follow suit over the next 150-300ms; then implement that plan in... yes, another 150-300ms. A young twitch-gamer might beat that by 50%, and a fogie might double it, but in the real world that describes how long it really does take for most people to begin slowing down in response to a change ahead of them: 0.5 to 1 full second.

At a 10ft following distance, at 30MPH, you would need to react in less than 230ms. Even that obnoxious 17YO that can frags you before you can even read the announcement he joined your game, can't realistically manage that. As a consequence, in bumper-to-bumper traffic flowing at 20-40MPH... When someone suddenly stomps on their brakes, an accident does happen, almost unavoidably.

aerojockey:oukewldave: aerojockey: imfallen_angel: DERP... he stated "at the last second."

People who wait till the last second are lesser assholes than people who cause back ups for miles because they merge way way too soon.

What is "merging too soon" mean? You have a sign two miles before the end of the lane that it is ending. At that point, you should be looking for a chance to move out of your lane during those two miles. No one is advocating diving in to the adjacent lane as soon as they are seeing these signs. You continue to drive and find an opening to safely move over.

No. If you see a sign that says "lane ends in two miles" you don't merge then. You drive with awareness that a lane is closing ahead, and wait until there is a sign that say "merge left" or "merge right". Then you merge. If you merge before that (or too far after that) you are an traffic-backup-up asshole.

There's a reason you often seen "use both lanes" signs in situations like this, because assholes start merging and causing backups before that.

People are commenting on the dbags who feel they are too important to sit in the slower lane and drive until they can't anymore on the lane that is closing, then push their way in.

You just said I should start the process of merging two miles ahead of the lane closure. So if I stay in my lane and drive past all you farking lane-snarling sheep until I see a sign that says "lane ends, merge left", and then I merge, I must be too important for you because I obey the construction zone signs including whereas you don't.

Whatever.

Let's be honest here, the real reason people merge two miles ahead of where they should is that they are pussies whose fragile minds can't handle the idea that they might have to do some "negotiating" at the merge point.

aerojockey:oukewldave: aerojockey: imfallen_angel: DERP... he stated "at the last second."

People who wait till the last second are lesser assholes than people who cause back ups for miles because they merge way way too soon.

What is "merging too soon" mean? You have a sign two miles before the end of the lane that it is ending. At that point, you should be looking for a chance to move out of your lane during those two miles. No one is advocating diving in to the adjacent lane as soon as they are seeing these signs. You continue to drive and find an opening to safely move over.

No. If you see a sign that says "lane ends in two miles" you don't merge then. You drive with awareness that a lane is closing ahead, and wait until there is a sign that say "merge left" or "merge right". Then you merge. If you merge before that (or too far after that) you are an traffic-backup-up asshole.

There's a reason you often seen "use both lanes" signs in situations like this, because assholes start merging and causing backups before that.

People are commenting on the dbags who feel they are too important to sit in the slower lane and drive until they can't anymore on the lane that is closing, then push their way in.

You just said I should start the process of merging two miles ahead of the lane closure. So if I stay in my lane and drive past all you farking lane-snarling sheep until I see a sign that says "lane ends, merge left", and then I merge, I must be too important for you because I obey the construction zone signs including whereas you don't.

Whatever.

Let's be honest here, the real reason people merge two miles ahead of where they should is that they are pussies whose fragile minds can't handle the idea that they might have to do some "negotiating" at the merge point.

Really? Pussies? I drive sprint cars on weekends with no mirrors or radios so 'afraid to merge' is bullshiat. It's called common courtesy. Learn some.

They should also fine those who keep a 500' distance from the car in front of them, thus backing up traffic. Also, fine those who almost stop when they see a police car, or an accident scene, trying to see what's going on, instead of minding their own business and drive like they're supposed to. Or those who are too busy talking to their passengers, or texting / being on the cell phone / reading, etc while forgetting they're at the wheel. Yes, I cut back into traffic several times for the above-mentioned reasons. Streets are for everybody to drive on. They're not park alleys, coffee parlors, offices etc. If you don't feel like driving, stay the fark home and let others do it.

Bit'O'Gristle:And just as a side note...everyone ..please ..start looking harder for motorcycles. Get off of your iphone and stop texting dumb shiat like "omg..im stopping at McDonalds now, or ...LOL...that was teh funny!!". People on bikes have little protection from stupid drivers who don't care about anyone but themselves. You're not the only ones out there. Look twice.

/thanks...end of public service announcement.

Yes, let's all make sure to look twice for those guys blasting by you, weaving in and out of lanes, and having a general disregard for all traffic around them. Those poor snowflakes, who will protect them if not the other guy? Goodness knows they could give a crap, which is why they made the poor decision to ride a bike in the first place. Keep the flip flops on and the helmet off Easy Rider, I got your back.

People who wait till the last second are lesser assholes than people who cause back ups for miles because they merge way way too soon.

What is "merging too soon" mean? You have a sign two miles before the end of the lane that it is ending. At that point, you should be looking for a chance to move out of your lane during those two miles. No one is advocating diving in to the adjacent lane as soon as they are seeing these signs. You continue to drive and find an opening to safely move over. People are commenting on the dbags who feel they are too important to sit in the slower lane and drive until they can't anymore on the lane that is closing, then push their way in.

aerojockey:PainInTheASP: Now if they would only start ticketing the assholes who ignore miles of "Lane Closed" signs and force their way into the proper lane at the last second.

Look in the mirror, pal.

The real assholes are people like you who see "lane closed two miles ahead" and switch lanes right away. All that ends up doing it causing traffic to needlessly to back up for miles. The correct time to merge is about 1000 feet ahead of the lane closure. When you go through a construction zone you will see signs like "lange closed 2 miles ahead": nothing about merging now. Sometimes you'll see "merge in 2000 feet": explicitly saying not to merge now but to get ready to merge. Sometimes you see "use both lanes" signs. Doesn't matter. You assholes ignore these signs and merge into a single lane way too early, backing up traffic for everyone.

At about 1000 feet before the lane closure you see signs "merge left" or "merge right". That's when it's time to merge. Any signs you see before this are just telling you to get ready.

DERP... he stated "at the last second."

and being caught in that scenario once that caused me to have an accident, the asshats that pushes to the very end and then cut everyone else, causing everyone to hit their brakes in an emergency fashion (my motorcycle slipped on the morning dew covered metal separator of the bridge... wrong time, wrong place).

Think the guy cared or realized what he caused? no, like a dumbass he probably tapped himself on the back for his madz skills.

So you fail at reading comprehension... and probably this type of derp that causes accidents and droves on thinking of how great a driver you are.

That's an annoying maneuver to pull, but how often will cops be at an exit ramp to catch these people? I'd rather they ticket all the people who use the passing lane to cruise at or below the speed of the traffic in the right lanes. And for the Farkers who will be replying "the speed limit is whatever and I'll drive that speed in the passing lane to slow down the speeders", you aren't the law.

Call the cops if you think people are driving recklessly and let them do their job. I'm still shocked I haven't read a tragic story of some driver was attacked because he thought he would deliberately slow traffic down in the passing lane and another driver attacked him.

tripleseven:Abox: I've never been bothered by this. Sometimes when you get to your exit lane, NOBODY will leave a gap so you drive up until you find one. Since I can't always tell the dif between those folks and the ones just trying to cut the line, I reserve my rage for bigger battles.

I cut people in line and think it's OK.

I drive in a constant state of rage, treating every perceived infraction as a deliberate affront to my manhood.

Abox:I've never been bothered by this. Sometimes when you get to your exit lane, NOBODY will leave a gap so you drive up until you find one. Since I can't always tell the dif between those folks and the ones just trying to cut the line, I reserve my rage for bigger battles.

Kinda this, but

1) when you see that there's a LOT of places that they can merge but insist on going to the very end.

2) they get out of the lane and THEN race to the end and then cut others off.

3) no signaling, they just plow in between two cars

I drive with the notion that every car is an idiot, regardless of how fantastic a driver they believe themselves to be, I try to stay away from every other car in the best way I can... it has avoided so many collisions it's pretty pathetic.

PainInTheASP:Now if they would only start ticketing the assholes who ignore miles of "Lane Closed" signs and force their way into the proper lane at the last second.

I'm looking at you, dickhead beamer with the "Baby on Board" sticker. You know who you are. You suck.

/Yes, this is a pet peeve. I know where I'm going, and i am in the correct lane MILES before i have to be there, esp on the highway. I exit without having to change lanes. City is the same thing. Don't farking swerve over at the last second to the lane you need to turn. Use some farking common sense and slow the fark down.

Abox:I've never been bothered by this. Sometimes when you get to your exit lane, NOBODY will leave a gap so you drive up until you find one. Since I can't always tell the dif between those folks and the ones just trying to cut the line, I reserve my rage for bigger battles.

This.

Which, some of these problems are folks going too slow and creating a back up to begin with. I get more bugged by someone going way too slow, then flipping me off because I pass them right after we merged onto the new road. Some little, teen girl did this recently on a right turn yield lane, she took the lane at 20 mph when I usually take the same lane at 45. We had no other traffic to yield to, and she's the one pissed.

Russ1642:PainInTheASP: Now if they would only start ticketing the assholes who ignore miles of "Lane Closed" signs and force their way into the proper lane at the last second.

I'm looking at you, dickhead beamer with the "Baby on Board" sticker. You know who you are. You suck.

When a lane is closed the proper way to merge is immediately before the end of the lane. In many countries it's illegal to change lanes early. It causes backups because everyone gets in one lane rather than using the available space. It's also a very unfair way of merging because no matter where you merge you're sure to piss someone off and they won't let you in.

Agreed, it's smoother and more predictable if everyone waits their turn and then does the zipper thing. What this article is getting at, I think (admittedly hard to tell because of the terrible writing), is cruising along in an exit-only lane while the through lanes are backed up, then trying to force one's way back into traffic at the last second. That's bad.